Writers block is quite possibly one of the hardest obstacles to get over. Unfortunately, I have been a victim of this sickness for the past few weeks. There has been an overwhelming amount of thoughts clouding over the section of my brain where I get ideas and motivation to write. I have been unable to perform my best on essays, write in my journal, and most frustrating of all; devote myself to this blog. But today something clicked….I thought to myself the only way to get over this wall is to find the source of why, then I could find out how to knock this wretched, cold, stone wall down and be able to write. As I began pondering what could be the source, I realized it was everything. I realized that I had let too many waves of life hit me that my brain was flooded with water.
In the past few weeks, I have been overwhelmed with the stress of class work, being the stage manager for my school’s musical, being the captain for my cross country team, waking up at 5:30 every morning for practice, thinking of ways to raise money for this trip, and learning who my team is for this trip. I have been letting stress and worry win these past few weeks, that I have forgotten the most beautiful thing about this time of stress…that this is a time when I will need God’s strength the most. This is the time when God is teaching me to lean on Him for strength, not myself. This thought led me back to the book of Mark. In the book of Mark, there are several times when Jesus leaves the disciples to go into a secluded place to just be with his father,so this is what I am doing now. As I am typing this blog, I am sitting in a coffee place that I have never been, with my phone off and no one I know around me. It’s a wonderful thing to wander off sometimes. After a few sips of coffee I decided to research African proverbs, which is when I found the title of this blog, “To get lost is to learn the way.” I immediately loved this proverb because I needed to get lost in order to destroy the barrier of my writers block, and within minutes God gave me an idea to write on. This idea is to write about what I will experience in each country, so first up is Lesotho.
Lesotho is the first of eleven countries I will be going to. Many people have never even heard of this country. Lesotho is the country inside of South Africa(yes it is a country inside of a country) and it is a wee bit smaller than the state of Maryland. Almost 80% of the country is 1,800 feet above sea level, with unstable weather. When I go in August the average weather will range from 36-66 degrees. Thankfully, August is one of the country’s driest months. Most of the two million people get their income from farming. Unfortunately, like many countries in Africa, Lesotho’s population has been affected by HIV. Only about 4% of their population is over the age of 65, and many children live without a stable home. When I read this fact, the difficulty of this trip really hit me.
For the past few weeks, I have been stressing about petty things compared to what the people of Lesotho have to endure everyday. I can imagine that those who do not have HIV are constantly worrying about getting the disease, or trying to protect their loved ones from the disease. Here I am thinking about how I will fail a class if I cannot write, while the people in that society are worrying about a disease that brings death. I feel selfish for not writing about these people sooner, so I could educate my readers. I feel sad that I complain about things they do not even know exists. I do not even know these people, and I am already hurting for them. I am thankful that God is giving me the opportunity to visit this country and help those in need. My team and I will be partnering with local churches to help them reach out to the community. I cannot wait to meet the men, women, and children of this country and bring them the light of Jesus.
Please be praying for God to prepare my heart and my team’s hearts for the good experiences we will have, but most of all the sad ones. I am aware that not each moment of this trip will be joyful, but I am praying that joy will come out of each moment in some way. Also be praying for the people in this country as well as the other ones I will be going to. Thanks for reading:)
You Stay Classy Readers,
J.Dot
